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Ohio Medical Marijuana Amendment Won’t Make Ballot

A push to place a medical marijuana question before Ohio voters this fall has failed.

Ohio Rights Group president John Pardee says the campaign managed to collect about 100,000 signatures by Tuesday's deadline, short of the roughly 386,000 valid signatures needed to qualify.

Pardee said supporters of the Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment plan to continue circulating petitions with the hope of making the ballot in 2015.

The amendment ran into some hurdles along the way, including recasting the petition after an initial version was rejected by Attorney General Mike DeWine as not representing a fair and truthful description of how the constitutional amendment would function.

Pardee said professionals such as lawyers and doctors were also reluctant to sign petitions for fear it might jeopardize their jobs.